God-Conscious Organization and the Islamic Social Economy


Book Description

Can there be God-conscious organizational behaviour in the real world of today’s capitalist corporations and the alternatives? In this overview of God-consciousness as a moral-awareness model of preference formation, functions, structures, and programs of organization within the purview of institutions and society, the authors explain and compare the major ethical issues of organizational behaviour and structure in Islamic economic theory and application. By analysing the nature of inclusive organizations and institutions, and the ethical preferences in Islamic choice framework, the authors from Saudi Arabia, Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Canada, Indonesia and the UK, can highlight individual aspects to show whether capitalist organizational behaviour is sustainable. They describe how The Tawhidi epistemological framework governing conscious moral decision-making by institutions and organization, are used to establish the meaning and potential application of the concept of sustainability, and whether organizational moral objectives achieve their goals of life-fulfilment development, Poverty alleviation and the equitable distribution of wealth and resources.




God-conscious Organization and the Islamic Social Economy


Book Description

Can there be God-conscious organizational behaviour in the real world of today's capitalist corporations and the alternatives? In this overview of God-consciousness as a moral-awareness model of preference formation, functions, structures, and programs of organization within the purview of institutions and society, the authors explain and compare the major ethical issues of organizational behaviour and structure in Islamic economic theory and application. By analysing the nature of inclusive organizations and institutions, and the ethical preferences in Islamic choice framework, the authors from Saudi Arabia, Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Canada, Indonesia and the UK, can highlight individual aspects to show whether capitalist organizational behaviour is sustainable. They describe how The Tawhidi epistemological framework governing conscious moral decision-making by institutions and organization, are used to establish the meaning and potential application of the concept of sustainability, and whether organizational moral objectives achieve their goals of life-fulfilment development, Poverty alleviation and the equitable distribution of wealth and resources.




Micro-Foundations of God-Conscious Economic Agents in Islamic Economy


Book Description

This paper discusses Islamic principles and how they can help in achieving efficiency along with equity in a market system. We start with the concept of 'human welfare' in Islam and show how it is distinct from the concept of welfare in western social sciences. The difference comes from the worldview. This difference is not trivial. It has important implications on human behavior and choices. Belief in perfect accountability and absolute justice will help in achieving ethical behavior even when it cannot be codified or made compulsory by law. After presenting the basic framework of welfare, we present how Islamic principles can systematically help to achieve equitable distribution of resources within a market system. We discuss the institution of Zakat and how it will incorporate diminishing marginal utility of wealth and also achieve the objective of circulation of wealth and utilization of idle resources. We also present labor market dynamics in an Islamic economy. We show how labor force participation, human capital development and technical progress will be achieved in an Islamic economy. Lastly, we discuss the effects of Zakat on bringing competition, efficiency, investment and employment.




Social Justice and Islamic Economics


Book Description

Under the rule of the current economic order, social injustice is ever-increasing. Issues such as poverty, inhumane working conditions, inadequate wages, social insecurity and an unhealthy labor market continue to persist. Many states are also unable to produce policies capable of resolving these problems. The characteristics of the capitalist system currently render it unable to provide social justice. In fact, on the contrary, the system reinforces these injustices and prevents economic and social welfare from reaching the masses. Many Muslim scholars have analyzed and, indeed, criticized this system for years. This book argues that an alternative and more equitable theoretical and practical economical order can been developed within the framework of Islamic principles. On the other hand, the experiences of societies under the rule of Muslim governments do not always seem to hold great promise for an alternative understanding of social justice. In addition, the behaviors of Muslim individuals within their economic lives are mostly shaped by the necessities of daily economic conditions rather than by the tenets of Islam that stand with social justice. Until 1990s, studies of Islamic economics made connections between finance and the notion of social justice, but work conducted more recently has neglected this issue. It is therefore evident that the topic of social justice needs to be revisited in a more in-depth manner. Filling an important gap in existing literature, the book uniquely connects social justice and Islamic finance and economics on this topic. Theory, practice and key issues are presented simultaneously throughout this book, which is based on the writings of a number of eminent scholars.




Islam, Economics, and Society (RLE Politics of Islam)


Book Description

The Islamic perception of the socio-economic process is dynamic and its insistence on social justice is uncompromising. To produce the best social structure, according to this view, man’s economic endeavours should be motivated by a meaningful moral philosophy. In the face of the challenges presented by the modern world, the practice of Islamic economics raises many complex and profound issues. These are addressed in this highly important work, which must be considered essential reading for all those who live in the vision of the ‘right’. First published in 1994.




Islamic Economics


Book Description

Studies conducted in the field of Islamic economics lose their relevance over time. Works examining Islamic economics since the 1970s have been co-opted by the existing economic system and have become limited to a large extent, as they are now only concerned with financial transactions. In fact, ""Islamic economics"" as a concept should actually be conceptualized as an alternative economic system. However, because of the financial and commercial transactions implemented in daily economic life ...




Islamic Economics and COVID-19


Book Description

This book is a timely exploration of an unprecedented, cataclysmic pandemic episode. It examines certain critical aspects of socio-scientific theory across a variety of diverse themes, and through an epistemic lens. The book investigates the general theory of pandemic episodes and their adverse long-term effects on human and environmental wellbeing. It includes an in-depth study of COVID-19 but also looks to the future to contemplate potential pandemics to come. The existing approach to the study of pandemics is critically examined in terms of the prevalent isolated and thus mutated way of viewing human and mechanical relations in the name of specialization and modernity. The book presents a novel model of science-economy-society moral inclusiveness that forms a distinctive theoretical approach to the issue of normalizing all forms of pandemic challenges. It is methodologically different from existing economic theory, including the critical study of microeconomic foundations of macroeconomics. Human and environmental existence along with its multidisciplinary outlook of unity of knowledge between modernity, traditionalism, and socio-cultural values is emphasized in the treatment and cure of pandemic episodes. The book is a unique reference work, offering fresh wisdom within the moral methodological worldview.




Islamic Economics


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive study, which provides informed knowledge within the field of Islamic economics. The authors lay down the principal philosophical foundation of a unique and universal theory of Islamic economics by contrasting it with the perspectives of mainstream economics. The methodological part of the theory of Islamic economics arises from the ethical foundations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (tradition of the Prophet) along with learned exegeses in an epistemological derivation of the postulates and formalism of Islamic economics. This foundational methodology will be contrasted with the contemporary approaches of the random use of mainstream economic theory in Islamic economics. The book establishes the methodological foundation as the primal and most fundamental premise of the study leading to scientific formalism and the prospect of its application. By way of its Islamic epistemological explanation (philosophical premise) in the form of logical formalism and the use of simple real-world examples, the authors show the reader that the scientific nature of economics in general and Islamic economics in particular rests on the conception of the scientific worldview. With its uniquely comparative approach to mainstream economics, this book facilitates a greater understanding of Islamic economic concepts. Senior undergraduate and graduate students will gain exposure to Islamic perspectives of micro- and macroeconomics, money, public finance, and development economics. Additionally, this book will be useful to practitioners seeking a greater comprehension of the nature of Islamic economics. It will also enable policymakers to better understand the mechanism of converting institutions, such as public and social policy perspectives.




Islamic Financial Economy and Islamic Banking


Book Description

Islamic Financial Economy and Islamic Banking, is a thorough, deeply conceptual, analytical and applied work in the area of epistemological foundation of Islamic world-system. The book presents a new frontier of original contribution to the theme of generalized-system model of shari’ah. The model, derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah (Prophetic guidance) incorporates a wide analytical coverage of the purpose and objective of the Islamic worldview (maqasid as-shari’ah) in Islamic economics and finance in particular. The author covers issues that contrast with the existing understanding of Islamic economics and finance, including some specific goals defining the field and how they compare in today’s unstable world of financial volatility. A new heterodox thinking in economic theory is outlined. The potential as to how such issues can be addressed by the Tawhidi epistemology in formulating the generalized-system model of the purpose and objective of shari’ah lead the way in this book. Its presentation and analysis, methods and approach, overarch the fields of philosophy of science, rigorous analysis, mathematical and other presentations of the understanding given, and all taken up in the light of the exegesis of the Qur’an and coverage of the Sunnah. The result is a substantive one in the field of scholarship and application; and in analytically proving the universality and uniqueness of the epistemic worldview for the academic and practitioner world at large. The totality of the multiverse diversity of issues and problems reviewed comprise the study of the world-system by the Tawhidi methodological approach. Yet this methodology and its empirical configuration are universally applicable to all users without any need for unnecessary religious overtone.




Women, Entrepreneurship and Development in the Middle East


Book Description

The Middle East was the region least impacted in the 2008 crisis, has investment systems markedly different to the West, is largely governed by Islamic Shari’a, and has varying forms of governance and institutional organization, which are not understood by many, nor how these systems shape entrepreneurial and industrial development. While the Middle East as a region has seen a small growth in entrepreneurship for women, and business scholarship on the Middle East has grown, there is no text in English that has brought critical insights from the Middle East together in a single volume. In examining women’s entrepreneurship in the Middle East, this book aims to challenge Global North assumptions about the disempowering impacts of Islamic Shari’a and governance. Referring to the constraints of Islam on women’s subjectivity and agency greatly misunderstands religious identity, of both men and women, and the way in which public administration and private sector institutions are organized in very different ways to Western regions. This timely text expands and adds new insights to the theorizations of women’s entrepreneurship in the Middle East, through unravelling spatialized themes, and incorporates contemporary themes including: an Islamic science reading of women, work and venturing; changing families and entrepreneurship development; women managing social crises; Islamization, governance and women; Islamic feminist activisms and entrepreneurship; representations of women’s entrepreneurship on social media; and women’s collectives leading entrepreneurship via Facebook entrepreneurship. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, gender, work and organizations.